Facebook and Your Relationship: The Do's and Don'ts

Facebook has been playing a role in relationships for quite some time now. Just the "relationship status" line, or lack thereof one, can cause confusion, anger, and happiness in addition to a slew of other emotions. Any information that you put on there can be visible to many people. In an effort to avoid any relationship problems, you should be wary of what you do, or don't, put in your Facebook profile.

Don't change your relationship status until it is verbally official

There have been horror stories of people finding out their relationship was over after receiving a notification of the change on Facebook. Avoid making any changes to your relationship status until you have verbally discussed it with the other person first. Not only could you cause the person to be upset, but also it can go the other way and you could scare him or her away as well.

Do leave your problems out of your status messages

More than once I have seen someone express his or her anger in a status message and, more often than not, it is directed toward a dating or relationship problem. If you are having personal problems with someone that you are, or were, dating, keep them private. No one wants to see that their interactions with someone else written out for all to see.

Don't overanalyze every new "friend" and comment on the person's page

Almost everyone who has a Facebook account is guilty of this. You check your crush's or significant other's page and wonder who that person is that they're now "friends" with or what a certain comment means that someone left on his or her wall. If you overanalyze every little thing that you see, it will not only drive you crazy but it will make you look like a stalker as well. In addition, no one wants to be interrogated about their life, so unless you really have something to worry about, it may not be worth your time and energy.

Do have a Facebook profile you can show your significant other

More than one person has told me that their significant other, or ex, had refused to show his or her Facebook profile to them stating the reasons of "invasion of privacy" and that he or she did not "want Facebook to interfere with the relationship". Although it is a website, it still has a connection to your real life, which means that you should not do anything on Facebook that you would not do off of it. For example, if you would not call your ex up for an intimate conversation while you are dating someone else, you should not be using Facebook chat to have that discussion either.

Options you can change your relationship status to are "In a relationship", "Single", "It's complicated", "Engaged", "In an open relationship" and "Married". There is also the option of deleting the relationship status section out of your profile altogether. Once you make a change on your profile, the change shows up on your profile page, in the news feeds of all of your friends and a notification is sent to the person that the change involved, for example, your now ex. On Facebook, nothing can stay secret for long.

It may seem silly that a website can have such an effect on people, but Facebook has become a reflection of our every day lives. People can get together, make up or break up over what they see or read on the site. Whatever you post, your crush, significant other and a slew of other people can easily have access to it.